Bitcoin as a medium of exchange in South Africa

‍First published on BitcoinFriendlySA, where I document real-world Bitcoin adoption in South Africa.

Pick ‘n Pay has allowed customers in South Africa to pay with Bitcoin for years, becoming the first major retailer in Africa to do so through a partnership with MoneyBadger.

However, beyond Pick n Pay in those early days, there weren’t many businesses across the country accepting BTC as payment, apart from a handful of small, independent ones.

That’s changing.

A narrative shift is underway in SA. People are no longer asking, “Where can I spend my Bitcoin?” But rather: “How can I spend it?”

That shift is driven in large part by MoneyBadger, which has partnered with several big payment platforms. Not only have they integrated with Yoyo, with Bootlegger currently the only merchant activated via that integration, but also with PeachPayments, Zapper, and Scan to Pay.

These integrations enable customers to pay in Bitcoin at hundreds of thousands of stores nationwide, including Bootlegger, Engen, Makro, and Wimpy. Put simply, you can now pretty much live on a Bitcoin standard in SA, paying for everything from groceries to fuel.

Simply ask for the QR payment option at checkout. Then, assuming payment is available via one of the integrations mentioned above, scan the code using MoneyBadger, which then connects to your chosen Lightning wallet, like Blink .

Note: You can also scan and pay directly using Luno, VALR, or Binance at Bootlegger, Zapper, or Pick n Pay Stores, as well as Luno and VALR at Scan to Pay-enabled merchants.

If you’re wondering what that looks like in real life, here’s a quick video from @RealKWINANA on Twitter showing a Bitcoin payment through MoneyBadger:

To show you just how real this is, I’ve also included a list of everything I’ve paid for in Bitcoin for October so far:

- Breakfast at Our Local, Gardens, CPT

- Coffee at Tamboersinkel, Tamboerskloof, CPT

- Groceries at Pick n Pay, Gardens, CPT

- Medicine at Checkers, Kloof Street, CPT

- Socks at Burnt, Waterfront, CPT

- Parking ticket, Waterfront, CPT

- Fuel at Engen, Oranjezicht, CPT

- Lunch at Terbodore (Big Dog), Franschhoek

- A few items at Checkers, Kloof Street, CPT

And in case you're not convinced, here are my receipts:

Please note: A few weeks ago, I was able to scan a SnapScan code to make a payment at both Tamboerswinkel and Our Local. But the option to do this has since been disabled for an unknown reason. If you want this to be enabled, please complete this form: Do you want SnapScan to accept Bitcoin payments?

Cheers,

Nick D

P.S. I also shared this post on X, and it’s been making waves. If you’ve paid with Bitcoin — in South Africa or anywhere else — please come drop your experience or join the conversation: Bitcoin as a medium of exchange in South Africa.

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P.P.S. If you’d like to support my work, you can now donate directly using the Bitcoin Lightning button below — or send sats to nickdarlington@blink.sv from any Lightning wallet.